The Novel Craft Blog

How to Tell the Difference between a Hybrid and Vanity Press

So you want to publish your novel. You probably know about the traditional and self-publishing routes, but there is another option you may not have heard of before. It’s called hybrid publishing, and it is filled with its own potential and peril.

Review of Margaret Atwood’s MasterClass

Creativity is one of the essential things about being human. So you don't have to apologize for it. It's something human beings do. Margaret Atwood, MasterClass Chapter 1: Introduction As soon as I finished Neil Gaiman’s MasterClass I dove straight into Margaret...

Review of Neil Gaiman’s MasterClass

I once heard that Tolkien hated teaching so much that he would lecture at the volume of a whisper to frustrate his students into never taking his classes. The students that were determined to learn from the master storyteller pulled their desks all the way up to his lectern and listened closely, forcing him to impart his knowledge. When it comes to teaching, Neil Gaiman is the polar opposite of Tolkein.

How to Disagree with Your Editor

What should you, the author, do if you disagree with your editor? Yes, in an ideal world the editor would always perfectly understand the author’s vision and the author would always perfectly understand the editor’s comments. But some edits are subjective enough to...

How to Review Edits in Microsoft Word

The vast majority of editors today work on-screen rather than on-paper. It’s faster, cleaner, and less prone to error. No one wants to manually type hundreds of hand-written corrections onto the final manuscript. With the advent of computers, that tedious job no...

The Four Levels of Fiction Editing

It may surprise you that there are four different levels of editing. You may have heard the terms proofreader, copy editor, and line editor floating around, but let’s be honest, none of these terms sound very distinct. Once upon a time I too thought they all meant...

Pin It on Pinterest